Developer sees spring groundbreaking for Whole Foods

Published 6:30 am, Monday, February 15, 2010

When Finger Cos. bought land at West Dallas and Waugh for a Whole Foods Market, it planned to build a larger store with underground parking.
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When Finger Cos. bought land at West Dallas and Waugh for a Whole Foods Market, it planned to build a larger store with underground parking.
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Photo: Beckham Design Group

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The late Marshall Wilson, an architect and inventor who lived near the site of the proposed 23-story Ashby high-rise, sketched this image. It appeared on signs opposing the project.
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The late Marshall Wilson, an architect and inventor who lived near the site of the proposed 23-story Ashby high-rise, sketched this image. It appeared on signs opposing the project.
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Developer sees spring groundbreaking for Whole Foods

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The company developing the Whole Foods planned for the northeast corner of West Dallas and Waugh said construction on the organic grocer will start this spring.

“We're in for a building permit,” said Marvy Finger, president and CEO of the Finger Cos. “We should start April 15.”

The 40,000-square-foot store could open a year later if everything goes as planned.

The project was announced almost two years ago, before the economy went south and commercial real estate deals started falling apart.

When Finger bought the land, Whole Foods was planning to build a larger store with underground parking.

“It was going to be a much grander development,” he said.

Construction financing still hasn't been secured for the project, but Finger said he has a number of sources to tap.

The Whole Foods will be next to a luxury apartment complex Finger also plans to develop.

He hopes to start that by year-end.

Ups and downs of values

Despite some easing last year, property tax valuations for some of Houston's largest office buildings have shot up 63 percent since 2005, according to a recent survey.

Harris County Appraisal District valuations on the city's tallest skyscrapers dropped 6.7 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the study. HCAD valuations are used for calculating property taxes.

“The falling property values last year certainly reflect the realities of today's marketplace,” said Kim Kobriger, managing partner of Houston-based Lewis Realty Advisors, which conducted the Houston Tall Tower Survey. “Office building prices have declined as rents have softened, vacancies have increased, and the scarcity of financing to make these investments has driven down the price for these landmark buildings.”

HCAD valuations should decline again in 2010, Kobriger predicted, pinching the school districts, city and county budgets.

The real estate company handles commercial appraisals along with other services for property owners and governmental entities.

Rise of the opposition

When residents of neighborhoods near Rice University began planning their campaign to prevent construction of the Ashby high-rise, they turned to one of their own to create the image that would come to symbolize one of Houston's most enduring real-estate controversies.

Few of the many thousands of people who have seen signs bearing this image — a tall building emblazoned with a forbidding scowl, its arms outstretched as if to snap up and devour the smaller houses beneath it — knew that it was sketched by Marshall Wilson, an architect and inventor who lived near the site.

Wilson, 68, died a week ago.

More than two years after the dispute over the proposed mixed-use building began, signs bearing Wilson's image still stand in hundreds of lawns surrounding the site at 1717 Bissonnet.

The project itself is now stalled and the parties involved are headed to court.

The developers sued the city of Houston last week seeking more than $40 million in compensation after repeated denials of their permit application.

“The city must learn that it cannot misapply the law to please a select few or to achieve de facto zoning regulations that our community has consistently rejected,” Kevin Kirton, the chief executive of developer Buckhead Investment Partners, said in a prepared statement.

Kirton and his partner, Matthew Morgan, applied for a foundation permit in July 2007, prompting an outpouring of protests from neighbors who complained the building would increase traffic congestion and was out of place amid their single-family homes.

The city denied applications for the project 11 times on grounds of excessive traffic before approving a revised application last August with most commercial uses of the building removed.

“They got a permit for what they asked for,” said Houston attorney Christopher Amandes, a leader of the neighborhood opposition group. “It's very hard for me to believe the 16 apartments and the net 15,000 feet of commercial space they ultimately took out of the project in order to get the approvals was worth $40 million.”